In a recent Medium post Gary Vaynerchuk proclaimed the rise of audio & voice. I freaking love Gary with all his hustle and shut up and do it and yes you will suffer but you must work harder than you ever thought if you want to succeed mentality. If I ever have a bad day, listening to him is like having a friend smack me on the side of the head and tell me to snap out it. So when he talks trends, I listen.

Below you'll find a snippet from his June 3 post and why he thinks voice is such an opportunity in the coming years.

And Gary isn't the only one talking about voice. In late May, the Churchill Club held its annual Tech Trends where notable VCs proclaim their trend prediction to a roomful of valley insiders who then vote for the one they think is right on. The revival of voice was trend #2 for the night courtesy of Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. That trend didn't take the win from the audience but it came damn close.

With all this talk of audio and developer kit expansion for Alexa and Google Home I see the opportunity for businesses to figure out their voice play and fast. If you haven't got a clue, take a read of this PC Mag review piece which highlights 23 Must-Have Alexa Skills for Your Small Business which includes one from our client BMC.

And if you want to kick ideas around I'm game - let's talk about it.

*image courtesy of Gary Vaynerchuk

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Podcasting and the rise of Alexa voice is here today. For the past 24–36 months, brands and individuals alike have gotten serious about audio. The problem is, there still isn’t a lot of great original content to consume which leaves a massive opportunity for those who can produce on another level. Think of it like Netflix, the companies that create the best originals are going to win. There is no doubt in my mind that the level of creative we are about to see from long-form audio only “sitcoms” is going to blow your mind.
In fact audio and streaming in particular is up 76% Y/Y eclipsing video with 250B annual streams. I think this is just the beginning.